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12 Days of Jumping Into Fall & Recovering From Summer

Day 3: Shopping, Creating, & Learning Online

(In case you missed the first 2 days, here are the links: Day 1 House Cleaning Playlist and Day 2 Tackling Low Self Esteem.)

Do you know what else you tend to do when you get your days back to yourself? Well, personally, I pop open my laptop and go gallivanting about the world-wide web.

I’ve been shopping for deals, building photo albums, and freshening up my blogging skills. What all do you like to do online? Well, I found some exciting things I wanted to share with y’all.

The funny thing is that I’ve never been that great about buying things online. My husband is actually our Amazon addict. (Don’t even protest, Alan. You know it’s true.)

But I found such AWESOME deals that I indulged, and in the spirit of passing along good news, here are the 4 things I *bought* (okay, one is free) this week online. Some are even from other bloggers, and it makes me EXTRA happy to know I’m supporting a fellow blogger.

This is one of the 30 or so Snapfish photo albums I’ve made over the years. I’m such a fan!

Deal #4 Snapfish Photo Album

Now here’s a secret you may not realize. Snapfish photo albums are ALWAYS on sale. The sale changes regularly, but it’s usually pretty close to 50% off, but you have to go to the Snapfish.com home page and locate the COUPON CODE. Coupon codes are everything on Snapfish.

I love to make these. Actually, I’m sort of obsessed with ordering all our photo products from Snapfish because they cut them specifically for digital photos, so it isn’t like when you drop your photos off at the local drugstore and then get them back with 1/3 of your photo chopped off.

And it’s not just photo albums that are always on sale. Most of their coupon codes are usually “site wide”, so they can be applied to any purchase.

Through September 11th, photo books are up to 72%off. Just use the code 60SEP18!

Deal #3 Boys Jeans from Kohl’s

I got them on sale, and combining it with my $10 Kohl’s cash, they were only $4.95 plus tax. However, that was a “flash sale”, so by the time you read this that one will probably be over.

Kohl’s ALWAYS has deals going on, and I love that their deals also apply to the online store though, so it’s definitely worth checking out. I buy most of my older boys’ pants and nicer clothing from Kohl’s.

Deal #2  FREE Blogging Course with Crystal Paine this Wednesday night!

You know I’m a big fan of Crystal Paine. I’ve talked about that here and here. I know her blogging course will be useful because I’ve already taken a pilot one that she did a couple of years ago as well as the Blog 101 Course

If you are interested in starting or growing a new blog, perhaps even making some money on the side, you can sign up for Crystal’s free blogging class here.

I actually took her course Blog Start Up 101, even though I’m not a beginner, and it was AWESOME. What she brings to the table is 12 years of successful experience as well as excellent motivational skills. Plus, everything in her course is an extremely organized format. Each day had a video, actionable plans, and detailed explanations.

I could’ve saved myself 2 years of “figuring it out” if I had had these courses back in 2014! Click here to check it out for yourself.

Deal #1 Brilliant Life Planner 2019 at the LOWEST Price Ever

Now this is the one I’m the most excited about. That’s why it’s #1.

This was my first year to use this particular planner, and it was a game changer. I’m not even exaggerating. With all the extra notes pages, graph pages, planning pages, and project planner pages, this planner, along with Beth Ann’s free planner school, which comes with your planner, challenged me to plan more thoroughly than I ever have before.

Remember my Facebook Live video about this planner? Yes, I get this excited about it.

Of course, it’s always so funny, me and planners. I start out the beginning of the year like, “Oh yeah!! I’m so excited about this new start. I’m writing down ALL the things!”

Ever so dedicated to writing everything down at the beginning of the year

…and by September my weekly pages look more like this:

not so dedicated to writing allll the things now..

hehehe Look, I’m just not the kind of person who can live up to an hour-by-hour kind of plan. I like a list better. A short list!

However, I will say that I have used almost ALLL the Notes pages in the front and back of this thing at this point in the year, and there were a ton. Not to worry though, because each month has its own Notes pages, and I haven’t touched those. Plus, I’ve managed to save a few blank pages for whatever these last few months of the year throw at us, to include Christmas.

I LOVE these Project Planner pages. I just started this blog daily checklist a week ago. The boys are back in school now, so I have no excuse.

I have 2 solid Project Planner pages left to handle Christmas. Don’t get me wrong though. I haven’t actually started planning Christmas yet.

Oh wait. It’s September. I bet many of you are already all over the Christmas thing…

The Brilliant Life planner is normally $58 and worth every penny and then some, but for only a couple more days it’s down to $42 for pre-order, so I’ve already bought mine! That price is good September 6-13! Click here to learn more or snag one for yourself.

I love filling out these pages!

Are you doing any online shopping? What deals have you found?

If you have any questions about the planner or blogging courses or Snapfish, ask me below, and I’ll find you some answers!

Stay safe in this hurricane! Be sure to check the blog tomorrow (September 11th) evening. We will have a first hand account of that day from my friend Amy who was working on Capitol Hill. I cannot wait to read it!!

The post Day 3 of Jumping Into Fall: Shopping Deals We’re Loving This Week appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I love Christmas break. Time off from spelling tests, chauffeur duties, graded papers, packing lunches, and best of all I’m not desperately rushing everyone to not be late…..oh how I love time off.

We always spend a few days at my parent’s house and a few days at Alan’s parents’ house, and it’s such a blessing to spend time with them and soak up the rest and good conversation.

With people you see on a daily basis, it can be easy to fall prey to simply talking about your shared problems and the annoying people you have to deal with. Ha! We all have them.

But when we get together with family at Christmas, we can re-focus on what matters and gain wisdom from others. We can always do that during the everyday too, of course, but I get the best ideas when I have some time and space to read and think!

Daniel and his favorite cousin at Christmas. They were born only a month apart.

I am reading 2 books and taking 1 online course that I’m gaining immensely from. One is on grocery budgeting and the other is on marriage. The course is about planning.

Alan even found an app for us to use for grocery shopping that has also been hugely helpful. I wanted to pass those along to y’all.

The Books

1.) How to Win the Grocery Game

I’m including an eBay link above for that one, which I do not make any money from. I just found the eBay price to be slightly better than Amazon.

This is an extremely practical book about saving money on grocery shopping. However, it was written in the 1970s and is extremely outdated. I’ve had to look for more modern ways to implement some of the strategies in this book, but it’s the strategies and the meal planning tips that make the book worth while…..if you can look past the insane price amounts on everything. You have to ignore those since this book is from the 70s!!

I’ll share with you a modern app I’ve used to help me do one thing from the book later in this post.

2.) Created to Be His Helpmeet

The above link is to the Amazon Kindle edition, but it is available in paperback on Amazon and other sellers as well. I do earn a small percentage when you buy through this link.

This book doesn’t even attempt political correctness with words like “hillbilly ugly” and “submit”. Ha! You have been warned.

But I’ve found it to be practical and helpful, a solid reminder. It has also helped me understand my husband better, as she divides men up into three groups: command types, visionaries, and steady men.

The book is about becoming a kinder, more helpful wife, and by doing that, you can’t help but improve your marriage, even if you’re married to the Grinch himself. I’m only 1/3 the way through it, but so far it has helped me to straight up be a nicer person at home with my husband.

I also love that it’s written by an older woman. She has walked through all the phases of life, and she’s sharing what she has learned.

Us with Alan’s side of the fam. Greg was MIA this year due to food poisoning. You were missed, Greg!

The App

As I mentioned above, I’ve found a more modern way to implement the grocery strategy, but it isn’t foolproof. I’m not sure if the database is leaving out all the goods from stores like Aldi and the Pig because they came up less frequently than I expected. Some work may still need to be done there.

But if you want an easy way to compare everyday prices at one store with sale prices from the circulars, this is an awesome app.

It’s called Basket.

You type in your grocery list. It gives you options for brands and lines them up by price. Try it out. You may end up spending hours on it like Alan and I have.

We put in our entire grocery list, and then we hit “compare prices”. It showed us that the cheapest way to get all our groceries at one store was to go to Walmart. However, the real issue was that Walmart was the only store that carried every item on our list.

To get the best savings, you can tell it to break it up into 2 stores. That gave us Walmart and Food Depot. In the list, it breaks down which items we should buy at Food Depot and which ones we should purchase at Walmart.

Wow, huh?

It was funny how it would switch stores as we put more groceries in!

However, Alan found that not all of the prices and sizes were available at Walmart, so checking your weekly circulars is still important.

I think this is a good tool, but it doesn’t truly replace searching through the weekly grocery ads.

Christmas morning

Chore Looping

Another exciting tip I got this Christmas is “chore looping,” which my sister-in-law, Amy, told me about.

For those of us who have trouble with other methods of keeping up with house cleaning schedules, chore looping is the way to go.

You make a list of tasks, like this:

• Scrub hall bathroom.
• Clean the kitchen.
• Sweep and mop the floors.
• Scrub master bath.

etc., etc. Add whatever rooms you have.

Then you work through it until you reach the end and start over, and it doesn’t have to be all in one day, all in one week, or even all in one month. You just work through the list as you are able.

Some tasks you have to write on your list more than once, like scrubbing that bathroom that all 4 boys use…bleh…

For Example:

• Scrub hall bathroom.
• Clean the kitchen.
• Sweep and mop the floors.
• Scrub master bath.
• Vacuum.
• Scrub hall bathroom.
• Tidy up dining room.
• Clean the kitchen.
• Tidy up living room.
• Dust the house.
• Scrub hall bathroom….lol…again and again and again…

…And the list goes on until you’ve covered all the tasks you can think of.

Some days you do 3 or 4 of them. Other days you do 1 or none at all. It just depends on when you have the time!

If you do marathon clean, then you skip the repeats. I almost never marathon clean. Why? Because it’s exhausting, and I was always hoping I’d be affording a maid by now….lol

Daniel helping with the Men’s Pancake Breakfast at church

I’ll save my excitement of my new Brilliant Life Planner and accompanying online planning course for another day. I can’t wait to show it to you. In fact, I’m definitely going to do a Facebook Live all about this planner this week, on my Stories of Our Boys Facebook page.

I hope you all had an absolutely fabulous Christmas and are as excited about the new year as I am! Actually, I’m pretty nervous about 2018. Moving…deep breaths…deep breaths…I’m going to need all the organization I can accomplish!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”    Jeremiah 29:11

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The post My 4 Favorite Homemaking Hacks for 2018 appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Lately, I’ve started a system where each of our boys has a couple of new chores he must do each day. Yes, even the 4-year-old. I instituted this because I actually cannot keep up with the housekeeping all myself anyway.

I pay them a quarter for each of those jobs, plus I give them extra coins when they exhibit a wonderful attitude.

I’m able to pay them on the spot because I have a big juice jug full of change.

This has been working extremely well for us. Though yes, I always inspect their work, and make them fix things they’ve skipped over, like little Lego men peeking out from under the sofa.

Killing bugs for mom also counts as a chore. The 3 of them teamed up to kill the cicada under that stack of books! That particular job was free of charge. Ha!

Today I have asked Josh Wilson, of FaithFamilyFinance.com, to fill us in on why paying children for chores is a MARVELOUS idea, not just for us, but for our kids too….

Why Is It a Good Idea to Pay Your Kids for Chores?

One financial decision you will need to make with your children is if you should pay your children to do chores. There are several different reasons why this is a good idea. For starters, they can learn valuable life lessons. If you are on the fence about paying your children for chores, read more to find out why it can be a good idea.

Adults Work for Money

Adults work to earn money because they have bills to pay. Paying children for chores teaches them the value of work. They can learn about the incentive of working harder to earn more money. Just as you don’t get paid if you don’t work, you have the option not to pay your child if they don’t complete their chores on schedule.

Until your children are old enough to get a part-time job, paying your children for chores can be a good way to allow your children to work for a goal instead of simply being given everything they want.

[clickToTweet tweet=”It’s a great way to teach your kids to work for a goal rather than being given everything! ” quote=”It’s a great way to teach your kids to work for a goal rather than being given everything! via @AprilandAlan storiesofourboys.com #responsibiity”]

Chores Teach Commitment

Chores can consist of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Even if you decide not to pay your child for some everyday chores, money is a strong incentive to remain committed for additional chores. Your children can establish a work ethic early on.

Offering to pay your child for optional tasks that you don’t necessarily have to do is a good starting place. By not paying your child for every single chore they complete, you can reward them for their efforts while avoiding the entitlement spirit of thinking they “must” get paid for every chore or they won’t do it.

Chores Can Instill Entrepreneurship

Depending on your child’s personality, paying for chores can instill a level of entrepreneurship. By realizing they can make money by providing a solution to a need, completing chores in this case, they may decide to pursue their own side hustle as they grow older.

For example, if you pay them to mow the lawn, they might ask your neighbors to mow their lawns for cash. During the winter, they might offer to shovel driveways and sidewalks for extra cash. If you only pay them an allowance for not doing chores, they might miss out on these additional money-making opportunities.

Paying for Chores Establishes Expectations

As the parent, you can set the expectations for when your children will be paid for their chores. If your children don’t do it right the first time, have them redo the task to your satisfaction. Chores can be an excellent opportunity to learn attention to detail and working efficiently to maximize their earning potential.

Remember to consider your child’s age and experience when setting expectations. Just as there is a learning curve when you start a new job, your children will need to master new skills as well. As they mature, you can increase your expectations and maybe even give them a raise as well.

Chores Can Encourage Communication

Communication is a two-way street in every relationship. Paying for chores can teach your children communication skills that can benefit them in the professional world. On payday, you can review your child’s performance and encourage them or tell them how they can improve.

Your child can also improve their communication skills because they will learn how to accept feedback, good and bad, from their superiors. Chores can also teach negotiation. Your child might offer to perform additional tasks if they are trying to increase their income.

Children Can Learn Money Management Skills

Earning money allows children the opportunity to learn the value of saving money for future purchases and accomplishing other financial goals. If you offer them additional money for completing extra tasks, your children can have an additional incentive to work hard to achieve their goals sooner.

In addition to paying your children for chores, you can also teach them budgeting and banking. Instead of just giving them money and letting them go on a spending spree, you can have them divide their paycheck into saving, spending, and giving.

For example, you can help your kids open up a savings account and they can watch as their interest grows. Each month opens the doors for a new learning experience, and even earnings for your children. You should likely use an online account with low minimums and fees to help you children keep more of their money. My children use Capital One which has an account created just for them. This will prepare them for adulthood when a portion of each paycheck goes to taxes and living expenses.

Summary

Paying children for chores is one of the most debated topics about parenting. While no parent is required to pay for chores, doing so can teach your child valuable life lessons. If you decide to pay your child, remember that you don’t have to pay them for every single chore, and you can also base the payment on their performance.

Josh Wilson is the owner of a start-up personal finance blog, Family Faith Finance. Check out his blog and learn more about his journey through life.

The post Why Is It a Good Idea to Pay Your Kids for Chores? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

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As a fairly recent college graduate — and as someone who just paid off hefty student loans — I know firsthand how expensive getting a college education can be. The cost of a degree is rising. What you may have spent on your own tuition and fees may not even cover a semester of your child’s tuition by the time he or she is ready to head off to a college university. The thought of paying for college in this era can be daunting. However, it is doable — as long as you come up with a strategy for making it happen.

Of course, it may not be possible to fully fund your child or children’s college education. Yet with some advance planning and some careful saving, you can put away a decent amount of money to help your kids get their degrees with minimal debt. Read on to pick up some ideas on how you can accomplish this goal.

Get a Head Start

The best way to save for your kids’ college education is by starting early. The idea of paying $40,000 a year or more for tuition and fees is scary. If you start socking away a little bit of money each month when your child is born, you can take advantage of compounding interest to get a great return on your investment.

You can automate your savings through electronic funds transfer (EFT), direct deposit, or other forms of automatic savings to have your child’s college education account grow without you even thinking about it.

So exactly how much will you need to set aside in order to pay for your child’s college education?

That number will depend on a variety of factors, such as the return on your investment, the cost of tuition, and how much of the tuition you intend to cover.

If you plan to pay 50% of a private college education that costs $45,370 per year now, or $390,298 total (assuming a 4% increase in college costs per year), then you will need to put away $458 per month into a plan with a 6% return starting when your child is born in order to cover that cost.

If you want to cover 50% of a less expensive in-state public university education at an average of $20,090 now, or $172,825 total assuming the same 4% annual increase in college costs, then you would need to put $203 each month into the same plan.

These relatively low amounts can help you save a significant amount of money over time. This will make a rather large dent in the total cost of attending college for your kids.

Use a 529 Plan

In the example above, the money was invested into a plan known as a 529 college savings plan. This type of plan is a tax-deferred savings plan that allows families to put aside money for qualified higher education expenses. Thirty-four states sponsor this type of plan, and several states permit parents to deduct contributions to this plan from their income taxes.

The money that you put into 529 plans will grow. Meanwhile, all distributions from the account that are used for qualified higher education expenses (such as tuition, fees, room and board) are free from federal income taxes.

A 529 plan is a great option, as they are fairly low-cost and have great tax benefits. Family members and friends can even contribute to the account.

Grants & Scholarships

One of the best resources for paying for college is one that many people often overlook — grants and scholarships. Looking for alternative funding sources such as grants and scholarships can help reduce the total amount of money that you either need to pay or borrow for college. Scholarships can be found through school guidance counselors, or through websites such as Scholarship.com.

Spending a few hours applying for scholarships can result in receiving hundreds or thousands of dollars in funding for school. They can reduce your child’s debt burden significantly. Grants, which are a monetary award that are usually offered to help students study in a particular field, can also be helpful. They are offered through a number of sources, such as the federal and state government, your child’s college, or local organizations. Your child’s college financial aid office and various online sites should have information available on applying for grants.

Student Loans: Which type is best?

Student loans are a fact of life for many students, and may be something that your children have to take out in order to pay for school. Federal student loans tend to have more favorable terms, and often have better interest rates. Subsidized student loans are preferable, as the government covers the cost of interest while your child is in school and during the grace period. Private student loans should be taken out as a last resort, as they tend to have much higher interest rates and can significantly add to a student’s debt burden.

Last Word

Saving for college can seem like a daunting, and sometimes impossible, task. It’s not, though, I promise! The earlier you get started the better, given the power of compounding interest. Even if you haven’t gotten a head start, it’s never too late. Try to come up with a plan and start saving – your child will thank you eventually!

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Jacob runs his own personal finance blog over at Dollar Diligence. Through meticulously watching his money and extreme frugality, he was able to pay down over $25k in student loan debt in just 15 months. You can learn more about his story and follow him here.

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The post 4 Hacks to Help You Save and Pay for Your Child’s Higher Education appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

What is “dealspotr”?

I first heard of dealspotr.com a few months ago, and I didn’t know what to think of it at first. It’s a place to find good deals to save money, and you can share deals that you find too.

You can find coupon codes as well as sales on there.

My Experience with dealspotr

I thought, “Okay, you can post deals when you find them…eh…”

I found an exciting deal at Papa John’s, and if you know anything about my family, you realize this MATTERS to us, so I posted it on dealspotr to share the happiness. It wasn’t hard.  Past that, I kind of forgot about dealspotr.com.

Then came spring break. Saving money has been not just nice but necessary.

Y’all! You can save some serious buck-a-rinos with this website.

The whole point of this website is to compile tons of good deals for all different types of things in one place. It’s the kind of thing thrifty people dream of.

Some merchants even offer exclusive deals through dealspotr.

When I use it, I head straight to the search bar.

Type in the place you are going or the thing you are trying to buy, and see what pops up. You never know. You could save hundreds on a vacation or just save $1 on your meal, but you won’t know until you search.

When I hear about a site that gives you deals, I like to see proof. Just how good are these deals? Are they worth taking the time to dig up?

Here’s what I found, to give you a few examples.

These are coupon codes that I found on dealspotr. I had spring break on the brain.

Legoland Discovery Center ——Get free child ticket with purchase of adult ticket coupon code (to be used to purchase tickets online)

Legoland Theme Park— Free child ticket with purchase of adult ticket. Copy code and purchase online.

Papa John’s Pizza—- 25% off code

Most deals that I found on there do NOT require a coupon code. These are sales. You can just click on the link and purchase at the discounted price.

This swing set is $342 at Walmart right now (March 20th, 2017), as opposed to the regular price of $586!!!!!

And this deal was my personal favorite with Easter coming up:

Before I went to Starbucks, I typed in Starbucks. There was a 10% discount on there for Starbucks. Awesome.

I need to buy tennis shoes for one of my sons, so I typed in “Nikes”, and I found about 5 different pairs of Nike tennis shoes, on sale, that would fit Caleb.

40% off your purchase at the GAP was another exciting deal I found on my personalized feed. They offer suggestions for you on your homepage, but to me, using the search bar was the most helpful way to use this site.

Now, you may need to create your own dealspotr.com account to be able to see all of these links that I’m including.

But the good news is that it’s free to join, and you can adjust your settings so that you don’t get unwanted email.

Do you think I can talk Alan into buying the boys that discounted swingset I found? 

You can also actually earn points and money from this company.

Fill out your profile, and upload deals that you find to start collecting points.

The points you earn by posting deals for them adds up to gift cards to places like Amazon!

Pssst! If you are a blogger or you have a ton of social media followers, you can earn even more! So be sure to check that out here. And be sure to use one of these codes:

lIAVKePx   or ESoM2F54

Have you tried Dealspotr or another program like it? Tell us about it in the comments! 

Happy saving!

****This post is sponsored by dealspotr.com, a community to find coupons, coupon codes, and sales and even share deals that you’ve found as well. All opinions are my own, for better or for worse.****

The post How to Save Money Using Dealspotr.com appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our family is living on a budget for the first time…..since 8 years ago when we read that Dave Ramsey book.

This year was a huge change. We went from paying about $3,000/year in school tuitions to Classical Conversations and preschool to paying about $15,000/year total in private school tuitions. That’s two full school tuitions plus a partial one for my kindergartener, who has a partial scholarship. It was a big jump. We realized we were going to have to make major changes in how we live to pay for all of this.

These tips will help you for sure. I do realize $15,000 would only pay for one child’s tuition in a large city. At the time that I wrote this we lived in Georgia, where the cost of living is lower.

I want to share what we are doing to pay for private school:

#1. We down-sized our house.

We went from a 5-bedroom home in luxurious Monterey, California to a 3-bedroom home in Georgia. The difference is so vast, but I’ve actually enjoyed this change! No more stairs to go up and down. Hmmm Maybe that’s why I’ve gained weight….Plus, our new house still comfortably fits us. It has everything we need, and it came with a way better backyard, so this was not a hardship. This was a win. We only lost about 500 square feet, so we ditched a room or two worth of furniture, and all is well.

We do have four kids in a 3-bedroom house, but only one of them complained, and I think it’s good for them.

#2. I took on a part-time writing gig with MontereyPremier.com in September, and I resumed product reviews and sponsored posts here on Stories of Our Boys.

Every little bit helps, and I’m still spoiled because I’m working from home. I still get to be with my three-year-old all day long. I can still cook dinner by 12 pm, and I’m able to pick up the boys from school every day. The only hitch is that I literally get paid by how much I work, so if I spend my day jumping on the trampoline with JD, baking, and sweeping, I don’t actually make any money at all. Ha….yeah, that happens a lot..

#3. We cut the bi-weekly cleaning lady, the gym, the pest control service, and the lawn care service.

Yes, we would like to have ALL of those services, but they are a luxury, not a necessity.

#4. We are “making do” with things that we would like to replace, and saving up money to replace them later, rather than spending all we have or taking on a car payment.

My minivan?

It’s a 2007. One of the doors has taken on a mind of its own, so you now have to do these special maneuvers to get it to close, and if you do it wrong it will go “Ding. Ding. Ding!” Only it won’t start all that dinging until AFTER the car is driving, so then you have to find a place to pull over and shut that door to save your sanity. Also, the defroster is having issues. I guess that’s what paper towels are for.

The minivan is paid for, and the engine runs perfectly. Just don’t stand in the trunk putting away groceries too long because it will randomly start to close the trunk door on your head. Nice little adrenaline rush as you quickly remove all body parts and small children out of the way!!!

However, we are thankful that we have two cars that run. That van has never broken down, and it has 4 good tires. We’ll make do another year.

My mattress? 

It’s 14 years old, and my hips were starting to hate, hate, hate my flattened out old mattress. It wasn’t giving much anymore. Soooo…we bought a $25 quilted mattress cover. That didn’t help much. Then we bought a $15 egg crate and put that on top of the quilted mattress cover, and we’re good again! That’ll buy us another year, I’m hoping.

Our sofa?

Well….we’ve only had it for 3 years, but it got ripped in a few places with the move. I don’t even know how because it was all wrapped and padded. I have no idea why we didn’t put in a claim on it while we had the chance, but we didn’t, so now we are stuck with a sofa that’s all hurt looking and sad.

It’s on my list to get replaced first, but not until Christmas is taken care of. Here’s hoping for a new sofa in January or February!

#5. My favorite part: Yard Sale-ing!!!

You might recall that my parents had a house fire this year, so when we moved down here I started going to yard sales with my folks. It is so addictive!!!

Here’s a list of some of my amazing finds:

-2 benches for $10 each

-Large Coach bag in PERFECT condition–for only $25!!!

-5 pairs of boys size 14 blue jeans for $2 a pair! Wow!

ladies shirts $1/shirt

-yoga pants $1

-Mom got a computer chair for $5!

-Sunglasses $1

-Baseball themed ceiling fan for half of what you’d pay in the store–I can’t remember how much! But it’s in one of the bedrooms at my parents’ new house now!

-Countless costumes, toys, books, and games

Yard Sales are my new hobby. I’m all about it.

Now I do realize that many people are into the Facebook yard sales now, the perpetual bargain fares. But have you noticed how over-priced they are? I can rarely save much over what I’d pay retail on those sites. Yard sales are still my favorite.

Thrift stores can be good too. I recently bought a nice set of shelves for only $15, plus a bag of AR books, all at Goodwill.

#6. Buying groceries at Aldi

I’m not a coupon-er, so I have to find the absolute most affordable place to go grocery shopping. Aldi is the cheapest store near me. The commissary is usually a great deal too, if you are military. But the best way to find out what place has the most affordable food is to shop a different store each week and make a comparison chart. When we lived in Texas, I was surprised to realize that Walmart actually was the cheapest, even better than the commissary!

I hope I’ve given you some ideas here for ways to stretch your budget.

We are constantly looking for more ideas! Please share in the comments or email if you have more ideas for how you save money! How do you “make do” and find discounts?

Editorial Update:

The next year we added our youngest son, which brought this to 4 kids in private school. Thankfully, half day preschool was much cheaper than regular private school. We stuck to these same principles to make it work. 

For more Money Saving Strategies, check out my other articles on this:

How to Save Money Using Dealspotr.com

Where to Find Cheap Food: A Comparison of Grocery Stores

How to Save Money on Makeup & Skincare

The post How To Pay For Private School: Changes We Made To Make It Work” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD’s new room setup

It all started with Caleb’s scooter accident on Sunday…apparently that was an omen of sorts. The next big challenge was that we promoted J.D. to a toddler bed. This has never been a big deal for us. I remember Joshua was so good at sleeping on a toddler mat, that at 14 months I could put Joshua on his mat in the hallway of a friend’s house, and he would go right to sleep.

Joshua and Caleb were both crib jumpers that had to be promoted at 15 months, to keep them from injuring themselves!

I remember Aunt Fran telling us, “You know they aren’t ALL going to be this good, right?”

hehehe  I’m sure we just thought we were the bomb, and of course they’d all be compliant nappers.

Caleb took us down a peg.  He liked to wait for me to leave the room and then pass out in his floor, playing with toys, but he was quiet, and he left us alone, so we were satisfied.

Daniel, around 18 months, sleeping soundly in his crib

Then came Daniel. By the time you have your 3rd kid, you are too busy to recall such details. Three is a stressful number because you’re still trying to live like the average American family, despite the fact that you have three children, six and under. I don’t recall Daniel’s transition at all.

But we have this one kid who has been sure to keep us humble in all of our endeavors: enter John David: both mover and shaker, a spunky man indeed! The boy has pluck.

This is John David helping me unload the dishwasher. One year olds make wonderful dishwasher unloaders!! He takes his job seriously.

A few months ago, Alan made his weekly run to the dump. Yes, we recycle, but our local California town gives us a trashcan that is barely bigger than the trash can in your kitchen to put each week’s garbage in. There are SIX of us. Seriously, you should see our teeny tiny garbage can.

So Alan was at the dump, dropping off our extra trash, when lo and behold he spots a beautiful toddler bed sitting off to the side. People around here move a lot, and sometimes the easiest way to get rid of things is to just set it by the dumpsters and figure someone will pick it up…….someone like us.

Did we NEED a toddler bed? No. We have 2 extra twin beds that we aren’t even using, but I can’t explain it. We thought the free dumpster toddler bed was cute. We proudly added it to our garage collection of “stuff we never use but couldn’t possibly give away.”

Eventually, we got tired of it taking up space, so we decided to go ahead and promote our little fella. Ready or not, here we go!!

Some people just can’t handle freedom of any sort. That boy could no more control his little self to stay in that bed than I can turn down a Krispy Kreme chocolate covered donut!! It was ridiculous! Any time he would wake up, he’d roll, or sometimes fall, right out of bed and head straight for his door. He figured out how to work a doorknob, and he was on his way to adulthood, he really seemed to think!

I already mentioned the first night, when he headed down the stairs at 1am. We have remedied that situation.

It’s been a week now, and I’m happy to report that things are much better now. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better. J.D. is a gregarious little individual. He has very set ideas for how he likes things, and change takes him a while to adapt to.

We love this outspoken, opinionated, animal loving, raisin bran crunch eating, cuddly, cuddly, cuddly little rascal so much.

Let me tell ya what is new in John David’s world:

-He has earned the nickname Angry Bird, because he reminds me of a bird sometimes, and he can be quite grumpy.

-He is usually the first person awake every single morning. I took a page from Aunt Amy’s book and hung black-out curtains. We’ve never felt the need to do this until J.D. Yes, the others all woke up early. No little boy here ever slept past 7am, but 5am is a WHOLE other kettle of fish! That is unacceptable, for sure.

I’ve always encouraged their early to rise routine (between 6:30 and 7) because I think it is a WONDERFUL habit to form as a young person, and I hope they will be able to keep it for the rest of their lives. Waking up in the morning, to this day, is my greatest struggle. I seriously need to be up and running at 6am, and that is the hardest thing in the world for me to do! Even when I go to bed at 10pm, which is my new habit for 2015, I still can’t wake up early! If you are tempted to say, “Then go to bed at 9pm,” you obviously do not have four young children. That is not actually possible in my position, I can assure you.

-JD eats breakfast with his daddy every morning. They eat eggs and Raisin Bran Crunch together. I was awake at 6 this morning to witness it, and JD mixing his eggs and cereal and eating them with his spoon, his fork, and his hands was both messy and adorable.

-JD is mostly only allowed to drink water, except for his nightcap of milk. This is because we are trying to get him as full of nutritional food as possible, in hopes that he will sleep better. Vanity, really….it’s all in vain….

-JD is starting to show interest in going to the potty. I don’t potty train 18 month olds. It’s hard enough at age 2. He will wait, and he will be just fine.

-favorite expression: “Ruff ruff! Ruff ruff!” He barks all day long.

-Favorite activity: puzzles, trains, Batman, and following his mother around. He also likes to color.

-Things his brothers say about him:

Caleb, while taking a bath with JD, “Look, Mom, I taught him this game.”

They promptly began hurling foam alphabet letters at each other and laughing hysterically. Right, well, I guess those foam letters are good for something after all…

Daniel: “Mommy!!!!  Baby took my Batman!”

“Moooooooom!!  No baby play my Batcave!”

“No, JD!”  “No, Baby!”  “NO!”  “Can JD sleep in my bed?” (Answer is no.)

“Me wake up baby now?”  (Also no.)

We were in the car the other day, and I said that JD looks so much like Joshua did. Joshua chimed in, “Except he’s way fatter than me.”

“Um, actually, JD is the skinniest baby we’ve ever had.”
“What!! I was chubbier than JD!!” Yes, Joshua, yes you were.

Caleb proudly proclaimed, “but I was the BIGGEST of all, but Daniel really was the fattest.”

Caleb, pictured here at 2 months, was off the growth charts from day 1. Extremely tall.

Daniel: His rolls had rolls.

All true, Caleb, all true. Come back tomorrow! Hopefully, I will find time to write about Caleb’s week of exciting new adventures: new sports, new friends, and one very happy Caleb.

The post You know they aren’t all going to be this good, right? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.